OMG: Julius Henson to Challenge Sen. Nate McFadden // Bob Ehrlich's Convicted Robocall Consultant Talks Serious Smack

UPDATE:  A Maryland Juice reader Tweeted us a link to an Examiner article by Hassan Giordano that dishes the details on Julius Henson's campaign for State Senate. Henson has some particularly incendiary comments about State Senator McFadden (excerpt below):

EXAMINER: Announcing his run on Friday, on the Frank Conaway Show on WOLB1010AM; Henson shook up the local political world doing something he hasn't done since 1972, run his own campaign for elected office....

"I've known I was going to run for this seat for about 6-months now, and it's about time someone shined a bright light on Senator [Nathaniel] McFadden as being a symbol of what's wrong with politics today," said Henson, who pointed to the Senator not even living in the East Baltimore district he's been elected to serve.

"Everyone knows he lives in Cross Keys, and he'll sell you out [the constituents] in a heartbeat to the high powered lobbyists [like Bruce Bereano] for a $5 chicken box."

Baltimore politico Doni Glover posted on his Facebook page that Julius Henson is challenging State Senator Nathaniel McFadden (District 45, Baltimore City). Henson (a Democrat) was convicted last year of charges relating to voter suppression robocalls on behalf of former GOP Governor Bob Ehrlich. WJZ described the charges as follows (excerpt below):

WJZ: [Prosecutors] say the call was an illegal trick to try to get Democrat voters to stay home by telling them Governor Martin O’Malley had already won.

"We’re OK. Relax. Everything is fine. The only thing left is to watch it on TV tonight," the call said....

Check out the following screencap of Doni Glover's announcement about the Julius Henson campaign:

Actress Eva Longoria Launches Robocall Urging MD Gambling Expansion // Desperate Housewife Urges "Vote For" Question 7

Maryland Juice reader Howard Gorrell sends us word that "Desperate Housewives" actress Eva Longoria is robocalling Free State voters asking them to support gambling expansion (Question 7). He sends us the following message from an anonymous Facebook user:

ANONYMOUS FACEBOOK USER: Want another great reason to vote AGANIST question 7?? My daughter that lives in Manchester, MD received a ro-bo call from EVA LONGORIA.....advising her to vote FOR question 7. Someone please tell me why this person that has no ties to Maryland (or none that I am aware of) would be making a call in favor or a bill that will have no impact on her?? Sounds like BIG money trying to strong arm us again!!! VOTE AGAINST QUESTION 7....even if Eva tells you not to!!!!

The robocall generated a puzzled response from Karen O'Keefe at the Montgomery County Media website (mymcmedia.org). See an excerpt from her column below:

MONTGOMERY COUNTY MEDIA: Why Does Eva Longoria Want Me to Vote “Yes” on Question 7? Just when I thought I’d heard it all, read it all and scrutinized it all about Question 7 – Maryland’s Expanded Gaming Referendum – and I had just about decided to vote “No” because I can’t see expanding the state’s economic reliance on gambling…

The unexpected happened. Eva Longoria called to ask for my “Yes” vote on 7.

Eva Longoria! Eva Longoria who was nominated for a Golden Globe – Best Actress in a Comedy Series in 2006  – for Desperate Housewives.... She’s from Texas, she probably lives in L.A. – when was the last time she even came to Maryland?

They paid her, right?.... Sorry Eva, I say “no” to 7.

Eva Longoria isn't the only celebrity launching pro-gambling robocalls into Maryland. Voters have reported receiving messages from boxer Oscar De La Hoya and magician David Copperfield.

PEPCO Robocalls Irene Alert // O'Malley Evacuates Ocean City & Wicomico

UPDATE: Pepco's social networking rep Andre, tweeted this response to our blog post (excerpt): "I’ll start by saying that we’re not trying to build up anxiety.... To summarize it, we just wanted to reiterate to our customers that the storm is nearing our service territory and the impact may result in outages for some customers." This sounds an awful lot like Montgomery County's strategy for preventing flash mobs!

Ahead of Hurricane Irene, Pepco has decided to robocall residents telling them to expect power outages:

[ Listen to Pepco's Robocall ]

I am guessing that means:

a) We'll be facing the same miserable power outages that occur anytime the wind blows in MD,

b) Pepco is responding to what the Washington Post recently described as their "lackadaisical approach to customer communication"

Call me cynical, but I suspect this will not ease residents' pending complaints about what will likely be an inadequate response to Irene-related power outages.

Meanwhile, Governor O'Malley is calling for an evacuation of parts of the Eastern Shore: